Jason Roy made a brilliant 162 to lead England to a crushing six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the fourth one-day international at The Oval on Wednesday.
India will have their task cut out against a vastly improved England
While Kings XI's biggest star Chris Gayle scored a 47-ball 79 in the Jaipur match, his Jamaican compatriot Andre Russell also looked in blistering touch for KKR in the match against Sunriserrs Hyderabad. Their rivalry will be one of the sub plots of Wednesday's clash in Kolkata.
With a debate raging over the run out, it remains to be seen how Ashwin and Co. start afresh in what will be their first away match of the season.
IMAGES from Day 5 of the 2nd Test played at Newlands in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Factbox World Cup match between Australia and England at the MCG.
Opener KL Rahul issued a stern warning to England that if their players try to sledge any Indian player then the remaining 10 will come hard at them, as was witnessed during the second Test at Lord's.
Alex Hales hit a sensational unbeaten hundred as England pulled off a dramatic six-wicket win over Sri Lanka to throw open the Group I for semi-finals places in the ICC World Twenty20 in Chittagong on Thursday.
Wicketkeeper Matt Prior and struggling batsman Jonathan Trott have lost their central contacts with England, though all-rounder Ben Stokes has been rewarded despite a poor home series against India.
England have added two pace bowlers to their 14-man squad for the fourth Test against Australia starting at Trent Bridge on Thursday as possible replacements for the injured James Anderson.
England's Alex Hales and Joe Root struck centuries as the tourists cruised to a series sweep with a massive 186-run victory over West Indies in the third and final one-day international at the Kensington Oval on Thursday.
Leg-spinner Adil Rashid and paceman Steven Finn were included in England's 13-man squad named on Wednesday for next week's first Ashes Test against Australia.
An old-fashioned green-top pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound was certainly a mitigating factor in England's performance, especially early on when West Indies' four-pronged pace attack exploited the favourable conditions.
Images from Wednesday's World Cup match between England and New Zealand, at Chester-le-street.
The series win in Australia shows India will be a difficult team to beat and England will have to be at the top of their game to outwit the hosts in the upcoming four-match Test series, coach Chris Silverwood said on Tuesday.
The 35-year-old has been bamboozling batsmen for 15 years now on the international scene and yet still somehow retains the element of surprise.
England have by far been the best team in the tournament.
England vice-captain Moeen Ali expects The Oval pitch to turn a bit later in the Test, starting Thursday.
Unlike in the T20I series, England do not have the option of battling this phenomenon with a practice outing against the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn. With both teams travelling to London on Friday, there might not even be enough time to sit down for some video analysis. In that light, the English batsmen will have to contend mentally with how to play Yadav on Saturday.
'Fielding is an attitude thing, so it's a matter of taking maybe our stand-off attitude today that we had in the field and getting it back to our positive attitude: going for everything, playing with that fearless nature, maybe taking a half chance instead of standing off a normal chance.'
Off-spinner Ravichandran Aswhin produced one of his most impactful performance outside the sub-continent as India reduced England to 285 for nine on the opening day of the first Test in Birmingham, on Wednesday.
History is going to be made on Sunday, regardless of the result in the ICC Men's Cricket Word Cup final at Lord's. Neither England nor New Zealand have ever tasted victory on the big stage before so there will be a new name on the trophy tonight.
Steve Smith stayed top with 937 rating points, an incredible effort since he started the series in fourth position with 857 points before his surge that came courtesy 774 runs in four Tests.
Joe Root hit his second successive century to power England to an eight-wicket victory against India, which helped them clinch the three-match series 2-1, in Headingley on Tuesday.
Joe Root's side completed an emphatic victory halfway through the third day when Mohammed Abbas was caught in the slip off Stuart Broad, his third wicket of the innings.
Australia thumped England by 64 runs to go 2-0 ahead in the five-match series of one-day internationals although victory came with a large slice of controversy at Lord's on Saturday.
With 36 different playing XIs in as many Tests under Kohli's captaincy, the Indian line-up is begging for some consistency.
'England were playing with nine and a half men'
Young Bangladesh pacer Kazi Anik Islam has been handed a two-year ban by the Bangladesh Cricket Board for failing a dope test in 2018. Kazi, who was Bangladesh's leading wicket-taker in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup, tested positive for Methamphetamine, a prohibited substance, during a National Cricket League game in the same year. The 21-year-old admitted to the offence.
The West Indies laid down a significant marker ahead of the ODI series as they comfortably beat England by 21 runs in their sole Twenty20 fixture at Chester-le-Street on Saturday.
India's slow bowlers tormented England again to claim a six-wicket victory in the third one-day international in Nottingham on Saturday to go 2-0 up in the five-match series.
Featuring Gayle, Kohli, Root, Dilshan and Butler.
Pakistan dominated the first day of the opening Test after bowling out England for 184 and battling to 50 for one in overcast conditions at Lord's in London on Thursday.
Jonny Bairstow's composed 89 helped England survive some atrocious top order shot-making and reach 268 for eight at close of play on the first day of the third Test against India on Saturday.
The famous win on Sunday was West Indies' first in the opening Test of an away series in almost 13 years. Jason Holder led from the front, taking a career-best six wicket-haul in the first innings.
After Stokes's heroics with the bat had helped England score 330 for six in their 50 overs, South Africa needed 10 runs from the last 10 balls of their innings with five wickets remaining, but an excellent final over from Wood that cost just four runs sealed victory.
England captain Eoin Morgan's century led his team to an impressive series opening 72-run victory against top-ranked South Africa in their opening One-Day International at Headingley.
Chris Woakes and rookie pacer Olly Stone will be vying for a final spot in the playing eleven.
England's four-pronged pace attack bowled India out for 148 before the hosts reached 62 for no loss in reply to take control of the fifth and final Test on an absorbing first day at The Oval in London.
Bruised and battered by Chris Gayle's mauling on Wednesday, England are faced with a must-win situation as they look for ways to contain South Africa in their ICC World Twenty20 match in Mumbai on Friday.
